


Come Home Safe

by Eggling



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-15 00:16:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13601499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eggling/pseuds/Eggling
Summary: The Doctor, Ben, and Polly wait for Jamie to escape a crashing spaceship.





	Come Home Safe

The incessant tapping of the Doctor’s fingers on the banister echoed across the transport room, somehow piercing through the whirr of teleporter units arriving, the shouts of reunited friends, the orders of the squadron leaders. The pained voices of the wounded and dying. His eyes were fixed on the row of teleporters, scanning across them in time with the rising and falling of his fingers. _Tap tap tap tap_. Another round of soldiers, brought down from the ship above. _Tap tap tap tap_. He had managed to synchronise the tapping with the working of the teleporters. _Tap tap tap tap_. He could tell the sound was driving Polly to distraction.

“Stop fretting, Doctor!” she hissed. “He’ll be here any moment.” She leant over the railing of the raised platform, studying the soldiers below, and the Doctor copied her. For a moment, he imagined that he saw Jamie, standing lost and alone amongst the others in his too-big uniform and ill-fitting anti-blaster armour, but that moment passed all too quickly. “He was perfectly alright last time we spoke with him.”

“That was _fifteen hours ago_ ,” the Doctor said. His fingers ceased their tapping, and he gripped the banister so tightly that his knuckles whitened. “Before the ship was hit.” His fingers drifted up to the collar of his shirt, where he had concealed his communicator. There was no vibration, no flashing blue beacon of hope. Briefly, he wondered if its twin still rested on its cord around Jamie’s neck, or if it had been lost. _Or if Jamie’s dead_ , a voice at the back of his mind whispered. He pushed it away.

Polly shuddered, and the Doctor knew she was remembering the last transmission from the ship. The shouting of soldiers, the panicked orders of commanders who were out of their depth, the grinding and clanking of a ship tearing itself apart – he should never have let Jamie out of his sight, he thought bitterly. He should never have advised the launch of another ship.

Four more soldiers materialised in the teleporter units. The Doctor’s grip on the banister tightened. “You’re quite right, of course.” He gave Polly a strained smile. “There’s still plenty of soldiers arriving. As long as they don’t lose power, there’s still hope.” He bumped his shoulder against hers, and she smiled back at him reassuringly.

The balcony rattled with the weight of new footsteps, and they turned to see Ben bounding up the stairs towards them. “I’ve just asked the general, he’s not on their list,” he said breathlessly. “We’ve not missed him.” He caught sight of the Doctor’s face, blanching at whatever he read in his expression. “That bad, is it?”

Polly herded him away from the Doctor, slipping her arm through his. The Doctor resumed his tapping, trying to seem absorbed in his vigil, but kept his ears pricked towards their conversation. “Could be worse,” Polly was saying quietly. “At least he’s still pretending to be calm.” The sight of a new batch of arrivals made the Doctor curse under his breath. Every passing second increased the risk that Jamie would be cut off and trapped. “Did you see the ship?” The Doctor turned his head sharply.

Ben nodded. “The glass roof in the hall’s still open,” He shivered. “I thought it’d be like a sinking ship, but it’s not. It’s falling quite slowly, it’s still blowing up. And it’s so big, it almost looks like the sky’s falling in.”

“It’ll take some time for the explosion to consume the whole ship,” the Doctor interrupted. “There’s still a chance that – well, that more people can be saved. They’re still coming through the teleporters, after all.”

Polly reached up to squeeze his shoulder reassuringly. “Jamie’s probably on his way now, Doctor,” she said. “You’ll see.”

The Doctor turned away from the transporters with a swish of coattails, pulling an info-pad off the wall. He tapped at it, tongue caught between his teeth in concentration. “It should take – yes, that seems about right. Perhaps an hour before the explosion starts to reach the main engines, and fifteen minutes after that until the ship hits the ground.”

“That soon?” Polly asked anxiously. “Will they be able to get everyone off?”

“I don’t -” One by one, the lights on the teleporters dimmed. The latest arrivals stumbled out, but there was no buzz of the units recharging. The power supply had failed. Hands shaking, the Doctor leant over the banister to call down to the squadron leaders. “Switch the lights off! Divert all the power you can spare to the links with the ship!”

Slowly, the panic on the main floor resolved itself into some semblance of order as the squadron leaders regained control. The Doctor watched until a message was dispatched to the control centre, then turned back to Ben and Polly. The screen of his info-pad faded to black, and he replaced it on the wall. “Will that buy us enough time?” Polly asked.

“Perhaps half an hour, provided they can switch off enough utilities,” the Doctor said wearily. “Of course, we are assuming that Jamie was high enough up in the ship to get away in time.”

“They were transferring a lot of people between the ships last night,” Polly suggested tentatively. “He might not have been on that ship at all.”

“He was on it,” the Doctor said grimly. “If he’d been transferred, he’d have told me.”

“What if he didn’t have time -”

“He’d have told me! I don’t know why he isn’t contacting me now.”

“Maybe we should leave,” Polly said diplomatically. “Waiting around won’t do anybody any good. We can distract ourselves for a little while, then when all the soldiers have come through -”

“Yes, yes, I see,” the Doctor said, scowling. “Forget about Jamie for a little while.” He sighed. “Perhaps you’re right. Waiting around here isn’t doing anyone any good.”

“I’m not sure I want to leave either,” Polly admitted. “What do you think, Ben?”

Ben shrugged. “It’s only half an hour,” he said. “We might as well wait here and be sure.” The Doctor was not listening, staring over Polly’s shoulder towards the teleporters. “Doctor?”

_It won't be him_ , the Doctor told himself sternly. _They’ll turn around, and it won’t be him, the last five times were all the same_ – He blinked, trying to convince himself that what he was seeing was an illusion. Surely he could not be so lucky. Jamie could not have materialised in the second of the teleporters, be shaking his head to clear it after the journey. But there was the unmistakeable proof of it – the communicator on its string around his neck, twisted and broken from some unknown blow but still recognisable.

“Jamie,” he breathed. “Oh – Jamie -” He pushed past Polly, hurrying down the stairs towards the teleporters. “Jamie!”

He heard Polly cry out behind him. “Ben! Ben, it’s Jamie!”

Jamie stumbled out of the teleporter, shoved out of the way by the next arrival, and leant against the wall listlessly, clutching at his head. To the Doctor’s relief, he seemed to have suffered more damage from the sickening experience of teleporting than from the crash itself. Pushing through the crowds towards Jamie, he stammered out breathless apologies as he went. He called out again, but his voice was lost in the chaos, and pushed himself up onto his tiptoes to see above the crowd. At precisely the same moment, Jamie looked up, and their eyes locked. Life flared back into his expression at the sight of the Doctor, and he fought his way forward, meeting him halfway.

They simply stared at each other for a moment, the Doctor feeling as shellshocked as Jamie looked. “I – missed you,” he choked out.

Jamie closed the distance between them, pulling him into a tight hug. “I missed ye too,” he mumbled into the Doctor’s neck. A moment later, he drew back, seeming to remember that they were standing in the middle of a crowded room. “Sorry,” he said, letting out a nervous laugh. “Sorry, I didnae mean to -”

“I don’t think anyone’s paying much attention to us.” The Doctor reached up to stroke his fingers over Jamie’s communicator. “I thought you must’ve lost it.”

“Nope.” Jamie grinned. “I tried tae call ye, ye know. When we were waiting tae be teleported back. It doesnae work – something hit it, I think. But I couldnae bear to throw it away.”

The Doctor cupped Jamie’s face in his hands, leaning forward to kiss his forehead. “You’re -” He kissed Jamie’s nose, then his cheeks, then finally, tenderly, kissed him on the lips. “You’re wonderful,” he said at last.

“What for?” Jamie rested their foreheads together, raising the Doctor’s hands to his lips. “For not throwing away one of your funny wee gadgets?”

“For coming back to me.” The Doctor pulled away, but Jamie did not let go of his hand. “Ah – Ben and Polly will be waiting for us. For you.”

“Aye, right.” Jamie squared his shoulders, bracing himself. “Doctor, ye do realise they’ll know about -”

The Doctor dragged him through the crowds and up the stairs towards Ben and Polly, ignoring his quiet protests. “Safe and sound,” he announced as he stepped onto the balcony.

Ben and Polly were staring at them. “C – congratulations,” Polly managed. She broke into a wide smile a moment later, throwing her arms around Jamie. “I’m happy for you.”

“Congratulations?” the Doctor repeated. “The ship’s still crashing. We’re not out of it yet, you know.”

Jamie nudged him gently. His cheeks were bright red, and the Doctor stared at him. “She means on…” He nodded down at their joined hands. “Us.”

“Oh!” The Doctor turned his wide-eyed gaze on Ben and Polly, then allowed himself a small smile. He had quite forgotten that Ben and Polly had not known about their relationship. “That’s not – ah – a recent development,” he explained weakly.

“Were you planning on telling us?” Polly teased.

“Aye, eventually, when we were ready,” Jamie said defensively. “It just took a wee bit of getting used to.”

Jamie’s smile was growing a little strained, and the Doctor stepped in hastily. “Yes, well, as thrilling as all this is, we do have the small issue of a crashed ship on our hands. This isn’t the time for celebrating.”

Ben and Polly’s smiles faded. “Right,” Ben said. “What do we do?”

“You go on ahead to the control centre, see if they have a report for me,” the Doctor said. “Jamie and I will check on some of the readouts at this end.” He watched them rush off down the stairs, waiting until they had vanished into the crowd to turn to Jamie. “You don’t mind that they know, do you?”

“’Course not.” Jamie nudged the Doctor’s side, his smile growing more relaxed. “At least we didnae have to tell them.”

“Yes, I suppose there is that.” The Doctor made as if to lead him down the stairs, but an ear-splitting grinding sound made him pause. The explosions had reached the main engines far before he had estimated, he realised. Something had gone wrong in his calculations. “That was close,” he said softly, looking back towards Jamie. “Too close. If you hadn’t come back when you did -”

Jamie drew him close and kissed him quiet. “There’s no point worrying about it,” he said. “I came back safe. That’s all we can ask for.”


End file.
